Friends
Peace be with you.
For some reason, during the heart of the pandemic, I watched a filmed version of a concert called American Utopia by a man named David Byrne. Now, this is definitely not a concert for everyone. In fact, I would bet most of you would shut it off in the middle of the first song. I know a person who refuses to even get that far because the performers don’t wear shoes or socks and you can see their bare feet. It’s politically liberal and there are some really weird songs in it. Still, I started watching it and was prepared to hate it but there was something kinda captivating, kind of beautiful, about it. If the name David Byrne sounds familiar, it may be because he was in an 80’s rock band called Talking Heads. And, sure enough, at one point in the concert, David Byrne grabbed his guitar and started singing Once in a Lifetime, one Talking Heads biggest hits. As a kid, when I would hear this song, I had no context to what Byrne was singing. But, as I prayed over the second reading for today, I found the words to this song sort of floating through my head…
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"
St. James begins chapter 2 of his letter by saying that, if we have the faith of Jesus Christ, we should not show partiality toward a rich or poor person. What’s interesting is that he goes on basically to say that we should show partiality to the poor. The next two verses say, “But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?” So, what is James really saying? I think it’s easy to want to associate with rich people. We see them driving a nice car or living in a nice house, maybe inviting us to come to the vacation house they own. They’re attractive people with nice clothes, nice faces, and nice personalities. Then we look over at poor people who are asking for financial help or asking for a ride because their old beater of a car is broken. They aren’t beautiful, of course. I think that’s why St. James says that we probably should favor the poor: because we naturally want to be around the rich. They have better stuff.
St. James offers two reasons why we should be aware of this unconscious bias, if you’ll allow me to insert a phrase he doesn’t use. First, because the rich have power, they can haul you off to court. If you can be seduced into favoring rich people, so can the police and the government. A rich person can build walls to protect the outside world from knowing they’re fighting but a poor person is exposed. And, hopefully, the rich have fewer things to fight about because they have a large automobile, with a beautiful house and a beautiful spouse. This is, in many ways, a pragmatic reason to not show partiality: because the rich are powerful and they can use that power against you so don’t get too close or too far from them.
But the second thing St. James says, which I think poses the greater challenge from a faith perspective, is that, if we are going to have the heart of Jesus, we have to operate under the law of freedom. Now, what exactly is the law of freedom? We can’t be so attached to our possessions or the things of the earth that we lose sight of our true home in heaven. The truth is that both the rich and the poor can lose sight of this. I know people who are very poor who do nothing but lament that they lost something, some store has closed or some building was torn down. I know part of this has to do with struggles to deal with historical change but I think there can also be a kind of idolatry that happens when people can’t imagine something needing to change. I’m reminded of some groups on social media where all people do is look at old, dilapidated buildings and click their tongues at how sad it is or claim that someone should buy it and make it into a home.
St. James, therefore, wants to make sure that, when people come to a Christian gathering, we show no partiality to who they are or what they have because we don’t don’t want them to show partiality to us simply because of who we are or what we have. Even if we’re rich, there is someone richer with a larger automobile, a more beautiful house, or a more beautiful wife or husband for that matter.
In the past few weeks, we’ve been taking a few extra collections to help people in need. I heard someone remark that they were visiting with someone who complained about how we’re always asking for money for yet another group. I tend to smirk at these comments because it’s not like someone is forcing you to donate. I often wonder if the comment is really a sign of guilt that the person hasn’t donated more to Haiti or the victims of hurricanes or for the unborn. But I also wonder if, perhaps, the person has a misplaced sense of charity. They see their donation to their church as a gift to a charity and say that donation should be enough. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad people donate to their parish. We couldn’t keep this place open without it. However, I hope we can also see that there’s at least a level of selfishness if that is our only gift to a charity. St. James sees the law of freedom tied to mercy. He says, “For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”
I’m guessing we’ve all found ourselves, at one point or another, asking “how did I get here?” How did my priority become keeping a large automobile or a beautiful house with a beautiful spouse. The question St. James wants us to ask ourselves is: do all these things get in the way of our care for each other and, if so, how can we put our priorities back where they should be?
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